Turkey
The Characteristics of Turkey
By: Setareh Gerashi
Humanities. Mr. Bonnalie - 8D
Where Turkey is Located
• Turkey is located in Southeastern Europe and Southwestern Asia, whilst bordering the Black Sea, between Bulgaria and Georgia, and bordering the Aegean and Mediterranean Sea. The part of Turkey west of Bosporus is officially and geographically part of Europe. Its neighboring countries include Greece, Syria, Iraq, Iran, Armenia, Georgia Bulgaria and Azerbaijan.
• Three sides of Turkey is surrounded by seas including the Black Sea, the Mediterranean Sea and the Aegean Sea. • The Sea of Marmara is also very important because it’s the only gateway to allowing the Black Sea out to the world.
Climate
• Turkey’s climate varies from region to region because of geographical conditions. In Western Anatolia, there is a mild Mediterranean climate with an average temperature of 9ºC in winter and 29ºC in the summer. The same climate can be found in the southern coat of Anatolia. • Anatolian Plateau has a rather steppe climate with a big temperature difference from day to night. The is little rainfall but more snow. The summer is an average of 23ºC and -2ºC in the winter. The Black Sea area has a wet, warm and a humid climate. Summer has an average of 23ºC and 7ºC in the winter. In both Eastern and South-Eastern Anatolia, there are long cold winters with an average of -13ºC and summer with 17ºC.
Geographic Features
• Turkey is a high and mountainous country. Mountains in Turkey cover large areas. On the other hand Turkey also has many flat plains. Turkey has been separated into seven geographical regions: the Mediterranean Region, Aegean Region, Marmara Region, Black Sea Region, Central Anatolia Region, Eastern Anatolia Region and Southeastern Anatolia Region. • The Great Agri Mountain (5,137m), located in the Eastern Anatolia Region, is the highest mountain in Turkey.
• Turkey has many rivers and streams. All rivers are emptied into the surrounding seas of Turkey. The Euphrates and Tigris Rivers, the main river in the Eastern and Southeastern Anatolia, flow into the Persian Gulf. The longest river inside the boundaries of Turkey is the Kizilirmak, with a length of 1,355km long.
• The total area of Turkey’s lakes is approximately 9200km². Eastern Anatolia has the most lakes in Turkey including Lake Van, Turkey’s largest lake (3,713km²).
Physical
• The natural resources supplied from this country include coal, iron ore, copper, and many others natural resources. • Turkey has severe earthquakes, especially in Northern Turkey, along an arc extending from the Sea of Marmara to Lake Van • Turkey’s coastline has a length of 7,200 km. • The total area of both land and water cover 780,580 sq. km. • Turkey has the same animals found in Europe, Asia and Africa. Turkey is home to many birds.
Turkish Vulture
People
• Population of Turkey is approximately 71,158,647. • 80% of the population are Turkish and 20% are Kurdish. • About 99.8 are mostly Sunni Muslims while the other 0.2% are mostly Christians and Jews. • Because of urbanization, now approx. 70% of the populations live in the cities whilst 30% live in rural areas. • Turkey’s state does not have an official religion nowaday seeing as Turkey isn’t so strict on religious traditions and aspects. • The official language is Turkish. Since Turkey has many ethnic groups other languages such as Kurdish, Dimli, Azeri, Karbadian and including many minor ones are also spoken. Interior of the Selimiye Mosque, Edirne
People
• Foreign languages that are being spoken by middle and higher class people are English (17%), German (4%) and French (1%). • Hospitality is very important in Turkish society as they are very generous and most gracious.
• Many Kurds exist in Turkey because of the Ancient times, they lived in what now is South-Eastern Turkey.
• Kemal Ataturk’s big change culturally split Turkey's urban with the rural villagers. He had forced the people in the cities into living a lifestyle like the Europeans.
Customs & Traditions
• Symbolizing Turkish living is by the Turkish Baths (Hamam). They return back to historic time where people went to public Turkish Baths because of cleanliness upon the religion Islam. They are built all around the country. • Turks are very generous and kind people. Hospitality exists in their blood. They always make you feel comfortable, whether you are foreign or not. Sometime they offer tourists coffee and sometimes invited to Turkish homes to spend some time meeting each other. • The Evil Eye. This is a distinctive item you should take back home as a souvenir. It is a little stone that protects you from the ‘Evil Eye’. It means that it protects you from people who talk about you, as a result curse or jinx you. • Respect is very important. When visiting a family, you should take your shoes off before entering the house and then kiss the elder and bring it to your forehead. This is very much appreciated. Kissing or hugging the opposite gender in public is often offensive to others. So it’s better avoiding that. • Turkish people always welcome everyone and then for their curiousity start asking you questions about your life and your business. This is not to be taken offensively, but rather because of their interest of you.
Political
• Turkey’s government is a republican parliamentary democracy. Its capital is Ankara. • Turkey’s independence day is on 29th of October, 1923. • Both the president and prime minister share the executive power. At the present time, Turkey has the National Assembly, which is the country’s legislature. The government of the country was taken over several times by the military, yet every time it has returned into civilian hands.
Government
• The public is very important in the government because of making votes and electing representatives. • People are allowed to vote by the age of 18. • The current president is Abdullah Gül and the prime minister is Recep Tayyip Erdoğan . • Although the majority of Turkey’s population is Muslim, it is a secular state, meaning religion is kept apart from the government. This made people’s lives easier.
Economy
• Turkey now has many modern factories in addition to the village farming and craft making. Clothing, chemicals and oil processing are the most important industries. • Turkey’s economy has grown fast these years, so has inflation. Many have left Turkey for better jobs and livings. • Approx. 43% of Turkey’s labor force works in agriculture.
• The major crops in Turkey include grains, cottons, sugar beets and hazelnuts.
• Turkey has ranked first artificial fertilizer producer in Europe and sixth clothing exporter in the world. • Turkey has starting building dams on the Tigris and Euphrates River in the 1990s. Their function is to provide electricity and irrigation water for crops.
Analysis
(Social)
• Kemal Ataturk, founder of Republic of Turkey and its first president, wanted to modernize Turkey. He thought of westernizing it. He started by making the government secular, deleted the Islamic one. He then introduced Hat Law in 1934. The men had to wear western style hats instead of the fez. New laws banned women from wearing veils. For education, he change the Arabic alphabet by the Latin one and closed the Islamic schools. The European calendar and metric system were used instead of the Islamic ones. He gave women more rights. They were allowed to vote and encouraged to work. After time, the lifestyle and attitude of middle-class Turks became similar to middle-class Europeans. This also urbanized people and split them from the rural villagers. This is very important because it modernized Turkey and introduced it to the world. The education was improved and the communication between Europe and Turkey became closer. It made the more people become high-classed, chic and smarter.
Analysis
(Political) • Turkey’s government had decided to be secular, separate from religion. Although in the Islamic law, men are allowed to have as much as four wives, the Turkish law only allows men to have one wife. This is important to point out because now if married men want another wife, they have to divorce their first one. This increases the number of men divorcing in the country which is actually bad. This also makes people move countries because of the Turkish law in order to marry another woman. This will affect Turkey by lowering the population. If they had the Islamic law, then any men could have as little as one wife and as much as four wives. The freedom will be much better.
Analysis
(Economy)
• Although the Turkish economy has continuously grown in the recent years, inflation has become a big problem. Many of the Turks have now moved to different countries such as Germany, Dubai and America because their salaries are higher. In 1994, it has been estimated that 1.5 million people have migrated to different countries with higher incomes. This has affected Turkey because, the country itself is causing its people to migrate to different countries. They migrate hoping that their salary will buy them more goods than it would in Turkey. It also caused the population to decrease. It discourages people in saving money for the future and investing. Inflation has also caused Turkey’s exports less attractive than other countries like China, where it is cheaper and just as good.
Bibliography
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Languages_of_Turkey http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religion_in_Turkey https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/tu.html http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/archive/8/87/20050725224012!Flag_ of_Turkey.png http://william-king.www.drexel.edu/top/Prin/txt/probs/infl6.html http://destination.turquie.free.fr/acoutume.htm http://www.allaboutturkey.com/ http://www.allaboutturkey.com/iklim.htm http://www.calliebowdish.com/Birds/TurkeyVultureShaverLake090606_7491.jpg http://countrystudies.us/turkey/70.htm http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geography_of_Turkey http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mustafa_Kemal_Atat%C3%BCrk http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Politics_of_Turkey http://www.enjoyturkey.com/info/usefull_info/Climate.htm